New viable, sustainable and cost-effective liquid feed available

15th September 2016

An exciting new viable, sustainable and cost-effective liquid energy feed is now available to livestock producers in the North of England and Scotland.

In a recent trial undertaken by Trident Feeds at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) dairy unit at Crichton Royal, Dumfries, the energy rich liquid was proven to maintain dairy cow performance when a proportion of cereals were replaced in the diet, and could save dairy farmers up to 12 pence/cow/day, based on recent prices.

This is an exciting development for dairy farmers looking to keep input costs to a minimum as the housed period approaches explains Dr Michael Marsden, Trident Feeds technical manager.

“With winter just around the corner, nutrition plans for the months ahead will be a key focus for many and with cereal prices increasing and milk prices remaining unstable, producers will be keeping a tight rein on feed costs,” he says.

“For this reason, news that a recent trial has proven that switching energy source to LactoBoost could help reduce feed overheads while maintaining performance, couldn’t have come at a better time.”

LactoBoost provides a very palatable, lactose rich (85% on a dry matter basis), free flowing liquid alternative to cereals and other sugar based liquid energy sources and can be fed as part of a TMR to partially replace cereals.

“What’s more, the research project showed it to match the performance of a cereal based diet,” explains Dr Marsden.

“The inclusion of LactoBoost at intervals of 3kg/head, up to 9kg/head, replaced approximately 2.5 kg of rolled cereals and at the 9kg rate, maintained milk and constituent yield.

“We witnessed significant cost savings and based on recent prices, when offered in a typical mixed forage ration, fed at 7kg to the higher yielders, it demonstrated savings around 12p/cow/day, that’s £24 per day for a 200 cow herd.

“The high levels of lactose, (85% DM), help to stimulate rumen activity differently compared to starchy or sugar rich feeds,” he says.

“This improves fibre digestion which produces more precursors for butterfat production, hence the butterfat percentages seen in the trial of 4.44% in the 9kg/day LactoBoost diet compared to 4.35% in the control diet. This is consistent with other published work on similar products and adds value per litre of milk which is important for producers on constituent contracts.

“Milk urea also reduced significantly, presumably due to the extra instantly available energy being used as an energy source by rumen microbes, indicating a higher proportion, of more desirable by-processors, of true protein in milk.”

Acknowledging the success of the trial results, Richard Cross, Trident Feeds national general manager says that ensuring a sustainable and viable future for livestock farmers is at the heart of all research projects.

“I know it’s hard to take that leap of faith, but quite often, the benefits will outweigh any negative perceptions and in this instance, trials have proven that. Take advice from your nutritionist and ensure that your ration is formulated correctly to maximise the potential on offer,” he adds.